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Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

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Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#91

Post by distant_hat »

daggerdrone wrote: post #58
dxbydt wrote: post #21

I grew up in a remote village in south India. We had over two dozen coconut trees in our yard. I made a long loop in the mud that went around all these trees. I'd pull water out of the well using a rope & pulley & pour it down the loop. The water would wind its way until it reached all the two dozen trees. About an hour of this water pulling & the loop would stay wet for a few hours. This sort of manual work was stan…

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

In India, dangerous stuff often pays less due to caste and other considerations. Manual sewage cleaners have a really high death rate in India and are paid peanuts.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#92

Post by onetimemanytime »

daggerdrone wrote: post #58
dxbydt wrote: post #21

I grew up in a remote village in south India. We had over two dozen coconut trees in our yard. I made a long loop in the mud that went around all these trees. I'd pull water out of the well using a rope & pulley & pour it down the loop. The water would wind its way until it reached all the two dozen trees. About an hour of this water pulling & the loop would stay wet for a few hours. This sort of manual work was stan…

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

>>Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

Because at some point, it's not viable to harvest them. We're not talking about thousand acre farms. But if you have a few trees and a coconut ends up costing you xx whatever, then F it, let them fall when it's too late.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#94

Post by peteretep »

brainless wrote: post #62
daggerdrone wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

Most Indians, me including and people I know of, do not understand the concepts of pricing that Western countries talk about. Even now, in 2020, this comes up frequently in product pricing when I talk to founders in India who haven't seen the Western notion of pricing first hand.

> Western notion of pricing first hand

Describing pricing according to demand as being the “Western notion of pricing” is one of the most bizarre things I’ve read on the internet recently. I say this as a resident of a South East Asian country where Chinese and Indian immigrant merchants have prospered plenty due to a keen sense of price and value.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#95

Post by manquer »

daggerdrone wrote: post #58
dxbydt wrote: post #21

I grew up in a remote village in south India. We had over two dozen coconut trees in our yard. I made a long loop in the mud that went around all these trees. I'd pull water out of the well using a rope & pulley & pour it down the loop. The water would wind its way until it reached all the two dozen trees. About an hour of this water pulling & the loop would stay wet for a few hours. This sort of manual work was stan…

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

During 1970's time frame that OP is talking about, it is largely the effect of thousands of years caste based discrimination that denied education and basic rights for a big chunk of the population.

Today it is problem of economics.

Coconut trees typically grow in state of Kerala, a lot of the population there work in the Middle East oil economies , the pay is considerably better there. Paying competitively does not make enough money to be worth the effort.

Coconuts outside the big cities event today are dirt cheap you can get a dozen for something like $1.

Kerala is not easy place to be a immigrant, It is big semi urban region - think like American suburbs. There are hardly any cities where immigrants can get affordable housing, this is because lot of the money the state makes comes from remittances from middle east, they don't feel the need to migrate to the city for better jobs.

In recent times there has been some immigration into the state from North Eastern part of India especially in the food and construction sectors - housing is on-site or the restaurant is in the city.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#96

Post by pkphilip »

vinay427 wrote: post #79
ponker wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people have more empathy for animals than for humans. The idea of a monkey forced/encouraged to climb a tree for a coconut tugs at their heartstrings the way a person does not.

It seems like you're answering on behalf of a large group of people with differing views that your comment doesn't at all reflect. I, for one, oppose this monkey labor and I would argue I don't have more empathy for "animals than for humans." I try to be equal in many respects and would oppose humans being coerced into doing this as well. It's why I oppose slavery, for instance.

Why would you have an issue with monkey labour when bulls et are routinely used for farming and transportation in India?

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#97

Post by Gibbon1 »

pm90 wrote: post #29
Hokusai wrote: post #6

> As the population increasingly moves towards tech jobs, there's now a shortage of coconut harvesters in India. This seems a very bold claim. I can believe that there is a shortage of people willing to do this job, but it is very hard to believe that the reason is the tech jobs. Even in the USA IT workers represent less than 5% of all jobs. Otherwise interesting how automation is increasing around the world.

People may not be employed in that industry but many seek employment in it. Even when it pays much less than what would be considered reasonable, it’s more than what other professions pay. But yes it’s a dubious claim that IT is actually absorbing all that labor, more likely that IT industry has created an economic boom that has created non IT jobs in cities and not many younger Indians find the idea of being a cocon…

I remember a bitch by someone that worked providing low income housing. What he said was one 'tech worker' whatever that tech is. Indirectly generates 2-3 support jobs. So for every tech worker you need to house 4 people.

In the case of India with a rising middle class for every family there are three other families providing services to them. No matter how shitty that work might be it's probably easier than harvesting coconuts.

I remember things my Mexican friend said about his family. In the 50's their grandfathers were seasonal farm workers in California. And then full time farm workers. The next two generations left farm work for things like working autobody shops, painting cars, making high end furniture. My friend and his brothers run and electronic assembly business. So moving up.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#98

Post by gnicholas »

aaron695 wrote: post #76
jb775 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drones aren't currently feasible. They don't have good battery life, they can't carry much weight (for a saw or w/e to chop the coconuts off), and precision cutting would be very difficult without propellors eventually clipping something.....then you have an electric saw dropping 30-50ft out of the air which is terrifying.

You can just tether a power line to a drone so weight and batteries don't matter. And don't use a death saw. This is why you'd do a drone. It's a good learning experience directly to industry. A tree climbing robot is way more abstract. Which might be good depending on the degree. But you'll never work on tree climbing robots in real life. Neither will ever be used by farmers to pick coconuts, so it depends on what y…

Tethered power + laser cutting would solve the weight issue and the don't-drop-a-saw issue. Not sure how thick the branches are that need to be severed, though.

But drone solutions seem much more efficient, especially given how long it takes to set up the robot featured here (15 mins per tree). This time would undoubtedly be reduced in production units, but variability in trunks will always complicate things. With a drone, it doesn't matter.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#99

Post by vosper »

dxbydt wrote: post #21

I grew up in a remote village in south India. We had over two dozen coconut trees in our yard. I made a long loop in the mud that went around all these trees. I'd pull water out of the well using a rope & pulley & pour it down the loop. The water would wind its way until it reached all the two dozen trees. About an hour of this water pulling & the loop would stay wet for a few hours. This sort of manual work was stan…

> I made a long loop in the mud that went around all these trees. I'd pull water out of the well using a rope & pulley & pour it down the loop. The water would wind its way until it reached all the two dozen trees. About an hour of this water pulling & the loop would stay wet for a few hours.

IIUC this was your role un maintaining the trees, and wasn't related to harvesting the coconuts? So it was for irrigation, I guess?

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#100

Post by egghese »

It is quite interesting to read through the threads here. Most people generalize India in terms of society or income. The south of India is pretty different from the northern part. The state in the video here especially is vastly different in terms of socio-economic structure from the rest. The caste discrimination is almost non-existent in the Southern part of Kerala. In the context, it won't affect your choice of life or jobs available to you. Or won't face any discrimination in day to day life. Thanks to a strong Communist/Marxist political presence.

In terms of economy, the southern part is well off, there are few pockets of poverty. But poverty isn't as visible as rest of India https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/southern-comfort-indi...

Coming to the robot/contraption. Growing up in an environment with an average-sized coconut farm. The device is completely useless. The assembly time per tree, even if its 5 minutes, would take 5*200 trees -> 16 hours in just assembly. And this amount of trees get covered in almost 2 days of 6-hour labor in a season by manual labor. Also, coconut harvesting isn't just about plucking the coconuts, but also involves cleaning the top. Picking the right coconut to be plucked etc. In that aspect, the robot would do more harm to the farmer. Though the cost of labor is high, a serious farmer is going to convert a portion of his yield into oil, which gives a decent margin. Also, this won't be the only crop they depend on. My family had a rubber plantation along.

Labour shortage is a real issue and it isn't economically profitable for someone with about 20 trees or so. But this device under the current design solves only one problem, i.e plucking and solves it very badly.

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